Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -3/20- Colts Add Depth At LB, Re-Sign Butler & Still Looking For WR Depth

Episode Date: March 20, 2017

Over the weekend the #Colts re-signed veteran defensive back Darius Butler, signed linebacker Sean Spence and have had meetings with Kamar Aiken and may be looking to add depth at TE as well. What is the plan going forward? And why are analysts still mocking multiple OL to the Colts in this defensive heavy draft? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. No, I'm not for sale. You are lockeded On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back to Locked On Colts, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Matt Dainley. And thank you guys for joining me here on this Monday, March 20th. And we're about to kick this off with a little bit of the news and notes that we had over the weekend.

Not a lot of huge stuff, but a lot of stuff that we needed to kind of shore up. You know, we knew that there were some talks lingering about Darius Butler not coming back, that he was going on some visits to Chicago and a couple other places. But the Colts did end up signing Darius Butler to a one-year contract for, I think, a little bit more than $3.5 million, with possibility of that increasing. And that's nice for the Colts. I mean, that's a solid addition. That's a solid re-signing off this roster. He is a 30 year old, but I mean, Butler last year showed as much, uh, determination and the ability to play through injury as any of the guys that were on the roster, to be quite honest with you. I mean, the guy had a club on his hand, not a club, but like a, a wrap and stuff on his hand for the majority of the season since I think like week five and end up getting two of his three interceptions on the season with it, including

one on Aaron Rodgers against Green Bay Packers and just continued to show that he can hit and played safety a little bit then. And that's ultimately what they believe that he's going to come back as. He's going to come back at the safety role, which is good. I got to see him in camp in that role, and he looked good there. He was doing that mainly because Clayton Gethers was out with that foot injury that he started camp with, but he also finished the season in that role and did pretty well. Laid some wood, was really good in coverage,

and that's where he is really going to help this Colts secondary is he's going to be able to help track balls. He's going to be able to allow gethers or even TJ Green, depending on what package they're in, and they're going to allow them to come into the box a little bit and help in run support as well. That's one of the things that has me a little worried about him. He's 188 pounds, 5'10". He's not scared to put a hit on somebody, but that doesn't help his ability to stay on the field. When he does do that, you saw in the, I think it was week 16, he put a hit on a guy, a running back, and end up sending him out for the game. He's as good as anybody in run support. He's a sure tackler. He's good in coverage. Those are all great things. I'm just a little

worried about his body holding up. I hope that he'll gain another five to eight pounds. I mean, it doesn't seem like a lot, but that's a lot of football weight. The only thing that would make that kind of be an issue is if that kind of depletes his ability to help in coverage. So whatever is best for him to stay on the field, to stay healthy, and also maintain his coverage ability on the secondary, especially from the safety position, is going to be a good thing for the Colts. Because I don't think he's going to be in the cornerback role at all. He just lost a couple steps. Even when he was in the slot, he wasn't as effective.

So it's a good thing for the Colts. I think that's great, bringing him back for that. And then, you know, now they can move forward. He's going to be able to help solidify that secondary a little bit. But I still think that it's a possibility that we're going to still draft a safety. I know that we've got three on the roster right now, but one of these safeties coming out of this draft right now could make a huge difference in coverage for the future. And you just don't pass something like that up when you've got the

ability to do it. The Colts also had some guys in for visits, had a signing, a couple different things. Got another visit coming up, which was either Sunday or today, Monday, when you guys are listening to this. Brandon Williams from Seattle come in. Now, he doesn't have a lot of stats. He doesn't have a lot of background. He started in Carolina in 2013. He went into Seattle as a backup, only started one game, and only had three targets. But he's 6'4", 255, not huge at the position. I don't know a ton about him, but if they're bringing him in, they're bringing him in, in my opinion, that he is probably a blocking tight end. That would be my guess because they've got Swoop or they may, they may, he may be some sort of a combination of the two, similar to Doyle, you know, a guy that

can do both because that's ultimately what they want, a guy that can do both because that's ultimately what they want, a guy that can block and receive. And that would kind of fill the role of Dwayne Allen in theory. You know, he probably is not quite the receiver that Dwayne Allen was, but I think that they think that Jack Doyle is going to eat up a lot of the catches. Swoop is going to be the guy who can get down the field a little bit more into the seam, more on the out routes, a little bit more mobile tight end, somebody they try to match up with, kind of send him out a little bit in the slot possibly. So I think that's a good thing. I mean, whether they bring him in or not is kind

of irrelevant. I would assume at this point, regardless of his abilities, that they're just wanting him to fight for a roster position, Brandon Williams, that is. And this is going to probably do that because I mean, I could see the Colts drafting a tight end, whether they actually do it or not. And when they were to do it, I don't know, but we'll have to see. I mean, this is all about competition right now. Right now, what he is building is the depth, and he is hoping to find the stars and the real difference makers through the draft, and this is a great draft to do it. So don't be surprised, like I've said several times before,

if we end up trading back a little bit in order to get some more picks and try to get as much of the talent as this talent-rich draft can possibly give us. Now they did make a signing. The Colts did sign linebacker Sean Spence. He's played in Pittsburgh and Tennessee. He sat out the 2013 season, but in the last three seasons between Pittsburgh and Tennessee, he started 19 games. He's got five sacks in those three seasons. Last year, he had 50 tackles total. The year before that, he had 34. So we've got another guy who's obviously going to be fighting for probably the starting position, in my opinion. He did have three passes defended last year, which shows you that he can at least get out into his zones. Now, whether he's okay in man coverage or not,

I don't know much about that. But just going off of basic statistics, you can see that he at least get out into his zones. Now, whether he's okay in man coverage or not, I don't know much about that, but just going off of basic statistics, you can see that he at least is capable. So the Colts are now going to have plenty of competition in that inside linebacker role. They're going to have Spence and Morrison and Jackson all going in for it. Now, we did miss out on Minter. Yes, he was the guy that I'd been kind of pining for as of late, but he's only signed in a one-year contract with the Bengals. That's not something that I would have necessarily been in favor of. Now, a guy like Spence or even just whoever, that's a contract for those guys, guys that I think can be depth.

I think Spence can fight for that starting position possibly, depending on how much he improves. And by all accounts, everything that I've heard from Tennessee guys and a couple of Pitt guys is that he's more than capable of taking that starting position, that starting role, and does pretty well. He just doesn't start a ton of games, so he doesn't have his stats just don't jump off the page at you. So why I wanted Mentor for a little bit longer, at least a two- or three-year contract, and I don't say at least. I'd say right in that area. But the reason I wanted that is because you want a guy who you can build off long-term

and supplement guys in there with the draft. And the way that Ballard has been doing his contracts smartly is putting a lot of the guarantees in the first year and second and third year you can kind of do whatever you want if they're still a productive player and they're good you want to keep them and you haven't made them redundant then that's fine then you keep them but if they have been made redundant then you get rid of them and you go with the guys you've gotten in the draft. You supplement who you want with either free agency or the next draft and you move on. With Spence, that's a one-year deal or a two-year deal. Whatever they end up doing is just fine because

ultimately that's a guy whose depth that you hope can rise to the occasion and get the starting spot or at least fight for it. And if, uh, if they don't, then, you know, then no skin off your back, cheap contract, they're possibly out the door or they stay as depth. You know, you take them as you want them. You see, you evaluate the rest of your roster and that's how you go. Just like any year. Um, the Colts also did bring in Kamar Aiken or at least had a visit and some sort with him, whether it was phone or brought him in. Not a lot of information on it, just that they had a conversation or basically that they met. And if you guys remember, Kamar Aiken was really, really productive in 2015, had 120 on 127 targets there in Baltimore, 75 catches, almost a thousand yards, low over 12

and a half yards of catch, five touchdowns in that year, and was just really productive receiver, was kind of a guy that nobody really saw coming, and ended up turning out being a pretty good ball player. He's started 14 games that year, but this past year, he only started six, only caught 29 balls for a little under 330 yards and only one score. He's got the speed. He's got the route running ability. And ultimately, if they were to sign Aitken, it would be one of those one-year deals. Now, what they would want to do here is we've got Chester Rogers. A lot of people like Chester Rogers. I would liken Kamar Aitken to a similar player. He's 6'2", 210, and Chester's a little smaller than that, I think. A little slimmer anyways.

But you've got a little bit more of a big body there that can run routes as well. Ultimately, this is camp competition. You've got him, you've got Bray, you've got Rodgers, and you've got these guys filling out the back end of the wide receiver core. This would be, in fact, in my opinion, this would be a fantastic move here because you never know what's going to happen injury-wise anyways. You never know if Dorsett's ever going to live up to his abilities or even come close to it.

I want him to at least be knocking on the doors this year. If he's not, he's gone. But if he doesn't, then you add another capable body to an offense that should, by all accounts, be another top 10 offense again this coming year, and you move forward. And with these guys on the roster, Bray is likely going to be the kick returner again. I mean, that makes sense, right? Because he was pretty effective that last year before he got hurt. And you got Aitken and Rodgers and whoever else they

bring in as undrafted guys, or even somebody, if they decide to draft one to battle for the end, the back end of that, uh, at that position. So that's a good, I think that would be a good signing. We've all seen what he can do when he's targeted. And, uh, you know, that in my, like I said, for my money, that would be a wise decision because that would maybe not eliminate the need to or not the possibility that they would draft one, but obviously it would diminish it significantly, and that's what I'm for. I do not want them wasting a draft pick on a wide receiver this year in any way, shape, or form.

Speaking of draft picks, I saw a mock today that had the Colts taken two offensive linemen, one in the fourth and one in the fifth, and I just about threw up. Now, I'm okay. I've talked to you guys about this, about them drafting an offensive lineman. I'm okay with that. We've brought in some depth with Schwenke and some other guys. We've got other guys on the roster that have been up on the active roster, but were also a lot on the practice squad last year who are going to be fighting for that position too. So there's, I mean, trust me, there's more depth there than you realize. Not only that,

but we've got a starting lineup. They've got two to three backups around that that can have a little bit of versatility. I mean, they drafted four linemen last year, guys, and we've got depth there. They're a young group. They need time to grow. I understand all that. But I'm not taking in any way, shape, or form two offensive linemen in this draft unless they acquire another four draft picks somehow on draft day. That just does not make any sense to me whatsoever.

That would be a total waste of draft picks, in my opinion, especially if you're doing it that deep in the draft. This is like a terrible offensive line draft for the most part. Now, here's where I get on board with that. If Ballard sees so much positivity and so much upside out of a guy like Garrett Bowles, he's a little bit older than typical draft picks. So this is maybe a bad example, but whatever, whoever it is, whether it's Cam Robinson or whatever, you see so much upside with that guy that that guy is going to solidify the

one side of your line. If he was to do that early in the draft or something like that and just get away from it, I'd be fine. But you can't, I mean, deep, that deep fourth, fifth round in this draft, man, my God, they're going to be, first of all, anybody who is a capable starter is going to be gone. You're going to be drafting camp competition. So you don't draft practice squad guys when you only have picks into the fifth round. That doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever. We've got practice squad guys that are going to be fighting for the position right now.

You want to do that? There's plenty of guys on the market right now that are 24 and 25 years old that are better competition than fourth or fifth round offensive linemen in this draft. Makes no sense. This is the problem when you have so many people doing mock drafts for teams that they don't know anything about. And I'm not knocking them. I'm just simply saying that's the problem with the mocks. You get into these mocks and you start looking at them and it doesn't make any sense to you.

Well, because the guy who does the mock knows nothing about your team. He doesn't know how the rest of the roster is filled out. He doesn't understand the depth that's already there, even when you're not looking at top-end practice squad guys that you've got on the roster already or guys that have been brought in for depth or to battle for that roster spot. And that's just the way it goes. That's awful hard for all 32 teams to throw a seven round mock out there for all of them. I get that. However, it just drives me nuts because this has been the thing for years and years that Colts need offensive line. Colts need offensive line early, this and that. Get two of them even, you know. Well, we drafted four last year, and I will gladly tip my hat to Ryan Grigson because, in my opinion, he drafted four pretty decent offensive linemen.

They're turning out pretty good so far. I'm not saying they're going to be world beaters. I'm simply saying that they've turned out pretty well so far. They all at least started a game, I believe, last year, and a couple of them look like they're doing pretty good. Now we need to see some growth granted, understood. That's something they can do next year when that offensive line class is significantly better.

This year, I understand Andrew Luck has just gotten out of surgery in late January or February or whatever it was, but this is not the time to be just blowing draft picks when you're trying to rebuild a roster. He's done a great job of bringing in all that depth across the defense where we absolutely had none. We've got a couple good quality starters. We've got a couple good positions on the field. We've got some D-line help. We've got Clayton Gethers there. We need to get, obviously, some more help opposite Vontae Davis. They brought back

Butler for a safety rule to help out there. These are all pieces that we're connecting. Now we've got this big puzzle on the table with everything on the outside all finished up. Okay. Now what they need to do is he needs to find the main two pieces of that puzzle with the, you know, the color, you know, the ones that have like the face where you see the nose and the mouth and you put them right in the center there and you just build around it right there to finish your puzzle. That's what he needs to do in this draft, and this will carry over into next year as well. When we start seeing roster cuts as the season gets closer and closer, when they cut down to the 70-something and then the 53, you'll see a ton of guys on the market right there. We'll see

a lot of our cuts go out. We'll start seeing guys who've been cut come in. That's when this roster really takes place. Offensive linemen in the draft are not going to win any more games next year than they will without them. No offensive linemen unless it's in the early rounds. Now, I'm not wanting them to draft offensive linemen in the early rounds, but I at least would understand if they got a top-end offensive lineman early and felt like they needed to get rid of somebody else that's already here. Does that make sense? I hope so.

I would much rather them just drop a couple edge rushers and a couple cornerbacks in the first four picks. That would make me super first four picks, that would make me super happy. I think that would make a lot of Colts fans happy as well. So we'll have to see. But okay, that's the end of my rant on the offensive line and the mock drafts that are out there that constantly are giving us more than one offensive lineman in their drafts. Now, thank you guys again for everything that you guys are doing, for your listenership, for your liking the show, sending it out to your friends,

sharing the show on Twitter and Facebook and everything else. Do me a favor, go back to last episode. I threw out a bonus episode with Lee Steinberg. He's the former agent of Edrin James and Jeff George, just Colts related. But he's also the agent for Patrick Mahomes and a couple other guys, as well as Paxton Lynch from last year. Really smart guy. He was actually the inspiration behind Jerry Maguire, the movie. So he's had 40-some years of being an agent. A lot of cool stuff in that podcast. I mean, it really was good. I missed out because I was beating myself up afterwards. I wanted to ask him a little bit more about the free agency process, but I had already kept him too long. So I felt stupid about

that. Sorry, I didn't get that on the podcast there, but a lot of other good quality stuff in that show. I mean, the guy had eight first overall draft picks under his belt and like 60 some first round picks altogether. So the guy has been in the business for years and years. I mean, he's ultimately considered a super agent, especially was years ago. So great information there. Really interesting show. Please go back and listen to that one. Share that one. That's really cool. I think you guys will like that. Not Colts-related necessarily, but just very interesting altogether. So thank you guys again. Please go rate and review the show on iTunes.

Also, like I said, share the show with your friends. Anybody that you know will enjoy it. You guys have been fantastic. I really appreciate it. I enjoy getting with you guys on Twitter through the email. It is lockedoncoltspod at gmail.com. I had somebody tell me the other day that they said that it wasn't working right. I checked through it.

Everything seems to be working in pretty good shape. So I appreciate you guys. However you want to get with me, let's do that. I always try to return any messages or anything like that and continue the conversation with you there. So thank you guys for listening. I'll talk to you all tomorrow right here on Locked on Colts. You are Locked on Colts, your daily podcast on the Indianapolis Colts,

part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. We'll see you next time.